Serpentomancy Experiments is a C40/ digital download from Yotzeret Sheydim, bringing together noised up texturally recordings of a snake- with the tape version of the release coming presented in a real shredded snakeskin cover- collected from the artist's pet snake.

The Yotzeret Sheydim project has been active since early on this year and is a venture that’s always looking for creative and distinctive takes on noise making.  Behind the project, is Alyx -a trans-gender noise/ jewellery maker from Pittsburgh, who is seemingly prolific in both her noisemaking and jewellery creation.

The black shelled/ white labelled tape comes presented in a  see-through case- this features a piece of the shredded snakeskin instead of the J card sleeve.  This release has had two editions thus far- with these coming about each time Alyx's snake sheds its skin. And at present, there are a few copies of the second edition left- which can be purchased here

The tape features two ten-minute tracks preside of tape. First up on side A we “Slithering Through Hands”, and the recording set up for this track is fairly self-explanatory- with Alyx attaching contact mics to her hands then let her snake slip through them. The track is constructed around a selection of seared, to chalky at times chop sliding ‘n’ dragging tones- which are built around a lot hiss, scrab, and bay. With headphones on this tracks textures really does nicely fill ‘n’ slice ones head, and I’d say it’s akin to say a looser / slower example of The Rita’s more stripped textured-yet-focused work.

     
Next, on this first side we have “sliding Over Dirt”- this features the contact mic placed 1 inch under the dirt, so we get a rewarding blend dragging and hissing twist, with nice selection click, pops, and snaps along way. On this track the recording hiss is a little too loudly present in places, and at points becomes a  little too overwhelming, thankful this does happen too often.

Moving onto the second side, and up first we have “Shredding” – here we find Alyx placing a directional microphone at the front of the snake &  shedding skin, manipulating both. And this out of all the tracks here is the most rewarding as we get these long dwells of ripping, pulling, and shredding tones- that really sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard- I do hope Alyx does some with these sound profiles, as they really are very much unequal.

Finally, we have “Feeding”- here the directional microphone is pointed towards the snake as it’s fed two dead mice. On this track, there is a fair bit of just dull and bland hiss, metal fiddling, and almost dead air- so rather disappointing really, as we do get some quite reward crunch ‘n’ latter scrub and fiddle near the beginning

There’s no doubt Serpentomancy Experiments is a most interesting concept for a release- and a few of the tracks here are wholly great. The issue is some of them are too un-eventual or rewarding in their textural detail. I can see if Alyx either focuses more on the great textures or doesn’t have to stay within the ten-minute track framework- then we’ll get a more consistent release- never the less another interesting release from the Yotzeret Sheydim project,